


Dreams of Youth

by Rinkafic



Series: Misc Fanfic [7]
Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-10
Updated: 2012-08-10
Packaged: 2017-11-11 20:42:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/482711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinkafic/pseuds/Rinkafic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Done for Dark Bingo fill "Hallucinations" & Love Bingo fill "Sensuality"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dreams of Youth

Sarah should never have trusted Hoggle, but she had been alone and frightened and needed to fix things and so she had been willing to follow anyone that seemed to have a clue how she could solve the Goblin King’s Labyrinth.

She had been hungry, the journey had been long and arduous and fear had sucked so much of her energy away. When Hoggle had offered the peach, a sweet, luscious fruit to assuage her hunger, she had taken it. One bite was all she had a chance to savor. But what a bite! The fuzz of the skin tickled against her lip as she opened her mouth against the fruit; prelude to a kiss for a yet kiss-less maiden. Piercing the skin, she tasted the juice as it ran over her tongue, sweet, heady, like no peach she had ever tasted before. It tasted of summer, and sun, and fresh air, all the things she liked the best about home. She took the single bite of fleshy fruit into her mouth and let it sit heavy on her tongue, sucking every bit of the juice from it.

But the peach had been tainted. Hoggle had betrayed her, had only been doing the Goblin King’s bidding. His offering had been a trick, a temptation to lead her astray, to take her to a place where the Goblin King held sway. She fell into a world of imaginings, of things that were but were not, that she could see but were not really there.

Back then, in the folly of youth, Sarah had not understood completely what the Goblin King had wanted of her. Only when she got older and understood better about want and lust and desire did she see better what he had been doing, what he had drawn her into; a dance of seduction. Later she wondered how different her life might have been if she had given in, accepted his offer, taken his hand. Would he have spared her brother and returned him home, could she have traded herself for Toby and undone the foolish and hasty thing she had said, wishing him away?

The gown she wore in the dreamlike ballroom had sparkled, encrusted with jewels. She had felt so very, very beautiful. This was no castoff costume from a summer stock production, with a childish wreath of flowers to adorn her hair. She was bedecked and bejeweled; she glimpsed herself in the mirrors and saw not a child but a woman grown. Silver glinted in her hair; jewels dangled from her ears and gemstones decorated her throat. She had become the princess of her own fantasies, everything she had always dreamed of being. The Goblin King’s spell had done this for her.

The revelers wore fantastic masks. The clothing was as varied as the creatures that wore the garb. Feathers, jewels, beads and pearls, everywhere Sarah looked; she saw something new and interesting.

From across the crowded ballroom, she saw him. He removed his mask and his eyes held hers as he made his way towards her. Something was happening; something drew her to him and only him. She was too young then to know what it was, still too much a child to play at the game he had started. She did not understand she was being lured, that she was prey, that he hunted her, though he made her do the chasing.

Present but not a participant in the party. The revelers knew she did not belong, they tolerated but did not welcome her presence in their midst. The music played on, the ballroom full of dancers turning and twisting and touching. Not part of their laughter, she searched for him, catching glimpses here and there, hunting for him in the crowd, her young heart thundering in her breast. Anticipation for something, though at the time she did not know what it was, could not know what it was, she had been innocent and virginal then.

And there he was before her. Handsome, beautiful even, unlike any man she had ever met because he was not truly a man but fey. He smiled and took her hand and led her into the dance. His body pressed against hers. Smooth skin slid against smooth skin as their fingers touched and he held her hand. Warm weight on her hip as his hand settled there and they waltzed. The others stopped their dancing and watched. Only he did not laugh at her. Only he did not mock or glare or stare with hostility through a mask at her. In his arms, she was safe for a time.

But it was the wrong time. She had a quest to complete, a task to finish, a duty to fulfill. She had to undo the wrong she had done with her careless wish, she could not stay in the imagined world he created. The world fell down around her as she shattered the mirror and the hallucinations faded away and she was returned to the reality of her path.

In the twilight of her days, she often imagined that she had stayed at the ball, in his arms. The dance in the dreams of her adulthood had led to kisses and caresses and silken sheets and a dance of a different kind. He had been her Jareth, her king and she had loved him, been loved by him.

 

The End


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